Francesco Tani

Francesco Tani is an experimental physicist who leads a research group at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) in Erlangen, Germany. He earned his master’s degree in theoretical physics from the University of Rome La Sapienza in 2010 with a thesis on laser-plasma acceleration. After completing his studies, he joined the division of Philip St. J. Russell at MPL, where he worked on his PhD on nonlinear optics in photonic crystal fibres (PCFs). In 2016, after two years as a postdoctoral research fellow in the division, he became the team leader of the ultrafast nonlinear optics group. In 2021, he received the Italian scientific qualification and, with other collaborators, a Pathfinder grant from the European Innovation Council, with which he started a new research group on chiroptical spectroscopy. The main focus of his research lies in ultrafast nonlinear fibre optics: he has investigated a wide range of nonlinear dynamics in PCFs, combined fibre optics with high field laser science, and pioneered the study of filamentation-like and long-lived dynamics in fibres. Building on his research, he has developed novel sources of ultrashort laser pulses in exotic spectral ranges and worked further on these in collaboration with industrial partners.  

He has authored 32 articles and over 50 conference contributions and has served as a reviewer for numerous scientific journals and conferences.